Maumee Valley Country Day School took its next step Wednesday in its shift from a day school to a partial boarding school, as officials broke ground on a new on-campus residence hall that will be used to board both international and regional high school students.

The $1.5 million facility at the South Toledo campus will provide living quarters for 28 students in the ninth through 12th grades. Regional students who now commute and international students who board with host families will live in the residence hall once it is completed. The hall will be open for the 2013-2014 school year.

In recent years, Maumee Valley has seen an influx of international students who come to the school to earn diplomas, as opposed to traditional high-school exchange students who may spend only a year at the school. The school now has 30 international students, two-thirds of whom are Chinese, and plans to boost its international enrollment to 40 in the next few years.

The two-story, 8,385-square foot residence hall will also provide housing for regional students, many of whom commute about 45 minutes each way to attend the school.

The residence hall will be named the Dayal House, in honor of the Dayal family, whose financial contribution to the project helped make it possible. Anisha Dayal is a Maumee Valley board of trustee member, and she and husband, Dr. Ned Lakshmipathy, have daughters Maya and Sukanya enrolled at the school.

They said they wanted to support the school’s goal to make students global scholars, as they consider it important for their children to be exposed to peers of varied backgrounds.

“I think the school has done so much for our kids over the years,” Ms. Dayal said, “so we wanted to give back.”

Maumee Valley head of school Gary Boehm connected the building project and focus on international students to other points in the school’s 128-year history when it became more diverse, such as when boys were first enrolled and efforts to enroll central city students.

“Each time that happened,” Mr. Boehm said, “we became a stronger school and a richer school.”

Mayor Mike Bell lauded the school’s new residence hall and said he frequently cites Maumee Valley while he travels abroad.

“A lot of cities would love to have, Gary, what you have here,” Mr. Bell said.

Along with the Dayal family donation, the residence hall will be funded through room-and-board fees, which will be set annually by the board of trustees.